The lure and romance of alchemy / by C.J.S. Thompson.

  • Charles Thompson
Date:
[1932]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The lure and romance of alchemy / by C.J.S. Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    194/300 page 172
    knowledge of the science. The several treatises bearing his name were not printed until the second half of the seventeenth century, and the one by which he is best remembered, The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, was not known until 1685. In this work he records many experiments made with antimony and describes its medicinal properties. He made the regulus of this metal, together with its ‘glass,’ an oxysulphide, and an oil, an elixir, flowers, liver, and a balsam. He boldly advocated the use of chemical preparations for medicinal purposes, which led to the iatro-chemical period, inaugurated by Paracelsus, that later dominated medicine. He shows a remarkable knowledge of practical chemistry, and appears to have had some idea of qualitative analysis, as he was able to detect several metals when mixed in small traces with others. He shrewdly observes that much of the apparent transmutation carried on by the fraudulent alchemists was due to the effect of mixing metals in different proportions, and that these mixtures contained neither gold nor silver. In other treatises under his name, such as the Revelation of the Hidden Key and The Great Stone of the Philosophers, he describes how to obtain spirit of salt, the action of oil of vitriol on sea- salt and brandy distilled from wine. He obtained copper from pyrites by first obtaining a sulphate and then precipitating the metal by plunging into the solution a bar of iron. He was acquainted with arsenic, zinc, bismuth, and manganese, and also with preparations of mercury and lead. He alludes to fulminating gold, to the double chloride of iron and ammonia, and describes methods of preparing many other metallic salts. One of the most disquieting considerations for those who seek to identify Basil Valentine with a monk of the sixteenth century is that in his works we find facts which are far in advance of those generally known at that time, and yet with them we have his adherence to the ancient alchemical theories. It is now generally believed that his works were written after the time of
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3